Sunset and Sawdust

A twister is raging through the small town of Camp Rapture, Texas. It's raining to beat the band. Wind is god-awful and the head cop in town is raping and abusing his wife Sunset, so called because of her flaming red hear. However, Sunset does not give in easily, she gets Pete's pistol, the one he uses in his job as town constable, and kills him. The town is sympathetic and in no time at all, and with the help of her mother-in-law who owns the town's sawmill, she's takes over his position. Meanwhile, east near the Louisiana border, a good-looking, guitar-player named Hillbilly hops a freight going west. Two men in the car jump him and Hillbilly kills them, but not before his guitar is destroyed in the fracas. Now he needs money for another guitar, so he heads to Camp Rapture and a job at the mill. Sunset needs a couple deputies and since work is the four letter word Hillbilly hates most, he volunteers. The next day a dead baby, packed in a jar, and the body of a local prostitute are discovered and now the tale takes off. The story at times seems a bit low key, but the tension always seems to be on the front burner, if that's possible. Mr. Lansdale has put many unforgettable characters in this memorable, often humorous, suspense-packed novel. I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Lansdale's "The Bottoms" and I remember thinking books don't get any better, well they do. Pick up this one and you'll see what I mean.

I do not understand why a book like this is not a bestseller. It is well-written. The main character is an activist/active female. The story line is terrific with twists and turns. The setting -East Texas Depression Era is interesting. Race relations of the times are explored as well as the place of women. There is terrific dialogue with humor thrown in. A bit of pathos...everything works. The book starts with a flaming red-headed beauty (thus her name "Sunset") blowing her husband's brains out when he is trying to rape her after severely beating her. Not only is she not convicted, she becomes the redneck town's constable. Sunset is one of the more compelling main characters I have read in quite a while. Her supporting cast is wonderful. Sometimes -though rarely - they may be a bit too good to be true on the outside, later it is shown they each have enough warts to be believeable. Mr. Lansdale rarely allows a character to remain as he or she appears to be in their introduction. Almost every character changes making the plot move and stay constantly fresh. Added to these wonderful features is a fairly decent mystery plot, which of course gets twisted and turned by both the characters and the author. This is a rare book. Not only was it fun and entertaining - great southern humor and expressions - so it is suitable for the beach; but it has depth warranting thought and consideration. Now for the sexist stuff: I highly recommend this to both men and women. My daughter loved it. She loved the story, the humor and the heroine. Yet, it is in no way a chick book. I loved it for all the same reasons. This really should be a bestseller.

Sunset Jones has just shot her no good abusive husband, Pete, the former town constable. Little did she know that this was only the beginning of her problems! Almost as soon as Pete fell to the floor dead, a raging storm comes through town, tearing down her house. Sunset is dazed and amazed as she looks at the remains: some boards, the floor and some papers that Pete had filed - she gathers her wits and heads over to her mother-in-law Marilyn's house to confess. Marilyn is sad and shocked over her son's death, but deep down she knows he got what he deserved. He'd cheated on Sunset and used to beat her. In fact, Sunset's killing of Pete gives Marilyn the courage to kick her no good husband to the curb! Marilyn is well to do in the town of Camp Rapture, Texas - she owns the sawmill where half the town works and a chunk of the land as well. She also has the power to appoint Sunset as the new town constable. Enter Clyde and Hillbilly, two of the sawmill workers, who Sunset makes Deputies. Things really get cooking when word gets out that Pete had filed a report on a baby's body that was found on a farm and now woman's body has turned up, who just happens to be Pete's mistress. While Clyde and Hillbilly try to win Sunset over, she realizes that it is up to her to figure out who killed Pete's mistress, before she gets blamed for it! I really enjoyed Sunset and Sawdust and found it to be a good mix of mystery, old western, humor, and sleuthing. All in all, a great book!

First of all, I am a Lansdale fan. I discovered his books about four years ago and I have read nearly every thing he's written. Lansdale keeps getting better and better. The location of nearly all of his books is in East Texas. I spent some time in East Texas approximately 12 years ago; it has a unique culture that Lansdale has captured and passes on in his stories.Sunset and Sawdust is set in the Great Depression. It begins with a tornado and a murder. Sunset Jones, shoots and kills her law enforcement husband in self defense as he beat her and later tried to rape her. At the same time, a tornado is blowing down the house around her. To Sunset's surprize, her mother-in-law, owner of a lumber mill, supports Sunset and uses her political pull to appoint her as the first female constable in East Texas. Of course, no Lansdale book is complete without him attacking sexism and racism. Sunset has a mystery to solve. A dead women and a dead baby, both covered in oil, are discovered in the rich soil on the farm land owned by an African American farmer. The woman is Sunset's dead husband's mistress. Was he the father of the deceased baby? Also in this story, another character from Lansdale's The Big Blow makes his appearance in this tale. Lansdale creates some of the best characters and creepiest villians. Sunset has to battle two of them, an aging boxer, who is still deadly with his fists, and his half brother who is not only evil, but has a split personality. Lansdale is quite a wordsmith. His prose is like sitting at the feet of a masterful story teller and listening to him spin a tale. His one-liners, metaphors, and similes are priceless. I like the way Lansdale describes the dirt and grime of a little, filthy, lumber town. He goes into such detail that you can almost smell the feces and want to take a shower afterwards to wash the sawdust and sweat off of you.If you like noir set in the Depression in East Texas, read Landale's The Boar, The Bottoms, and The Big Blow (early 1900's). I would also recommend one of Lansdale's mentor's books, Neil Barrett's Piggs (described as the Sopranos, barefoot and in overalls).

I first read a Joe R. Lansdale story in an anthology entitled NIGHT VISIONS. It was one of a series of volumes published by a wonderful and sadly defunct company named Dark Harvest. Dark Harvest, as might be gathered from its name, published horror literature, and was so reliable that one could pick up any title it issued and be happy.I'd never heard of Lansdale before NIGHT VISIONS, and after reading his stories in that volume I never have never forgotten him. Lansdale's work effortlessly cuts across genres; while he tends to find himself classified in the western, horror, and suspense genres, his work and his talent are too big and too strong to be confined to any one area. He writes like an angel with the mindset of Hieronymus Bosch. If there were a soundtrack to his novels, it would be ZZ Top fronted by Trent Reznor, with The Sons of the Pioneers on vocals. While Lansdale's work is set in this world, he's definitely writing about the part of the town where the buses run few and far between, if at all.SUNSET AND SAWDUST combines all of the finest elements of Lansdale's talents, making the Depression era East Texas towns of Camp Rapture and Holiday the setting for a dark morality tale with Biblical overtones. The story begins with Sunset Jones killing her husband Pete in self-defense in the midst of a devastating windstorm. The late departed Pete was the constable of Camp Rapture and the son of Marilyn Jones, three-quarter owner of the sawmill which is the lifeblood of the town.No one is more surprised than Sunset when her mother-in-law proves to be unexpectedly understanding of Sunset's actions, and sees to it that Sunset succeeds Pete as town constable. Sunset, to everyone's surprise, actually takes her duties seriously, and while there are those who are extremely uncomfortable having a woman filling the duties of the office, she manages to acquire a grudging respect from the citizens, particularly after she assists law enforcement in Holiday to defuse a particularly violent situation. The bizarre discovery of the bodies of a woman and a newly born baby on the property of the only black landowner in the area, however, lead Sunshine into an investigation that individuals in both towns would rather not see completed.Lansdale is known for creating frightening but realistic characters, and he is at the top of his game here, introducing the unlikely pair of McBride and Two as well as the enigmatic Hillbilly. Another of Lansdale's stylistic trademarks, colorful metaphors and turns of phrase, are in good supply here, peppered throughout the narrative like the Burma Shave highway signposts of old. The outcome of the apocalyptic ending is, as usually the case with Lansdale, impossible to predict; it seems at times as if Lansdale himself is surprised at the denouement. This, perhaps, is at it should be.After more than twenty years of writing, and at a point in his career where a less enterprising writer could happily phone in an annual novel, Lansdale